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| Yang Kyung-soo, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, leaves the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul following a verdict, Thursday. Yonhap |
An appellate court upheld a suspended one-year prison term Thursday for Yang Kyung-soo, the chief of one of the country's biggest umbrella labor unions, for organizing mass rallies in central Seoul last year in defiance of COVID-19 rules.
The chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) was indicted on charges of violating the demonstration and infectious disease prevention acts for organizing several large-scale labor rallies in central Seoul between May and July last year.
Up to thousands of union members participated in each of the mass rallies demanding enhanced labor rights despite authorities' repeated calls for them to comply with the ban on rallies that was in place at that time.
In the first ruling on the case in November, the Seoul Central District Court gave a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, to Yang, along with a fine of 3 million won ($2,306). Yang was released from jail upon the suspended jail sentence.
Upholding the verdict on Thursday, an appellate panel of the Seoul Central District Court pointed out those rallies ran against the government and the public's collective efforts at that time to bring the virus under control even at the cost of their normal everyday activities.
The court also dismissed Yang's petition asking for a constitutionality review of the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, which he filed with the court claiming the law's antivirus ban on social rallies excessively restricts the freedom of assembly.
"Even basic rights, including the freedom of assembly, could be subject to restrictions if it is necessary for public welfare," the court said, adding the contagiousness and the fatality of COVID-19 warranted such a ban on mass rallies.
Right after the ruling, Yang denounced the verdict as "heavy" and "unfair," urging the government to come up with ways to fight a pandemic in a way that broadly guarantees workers' freedom of assembly and demonstration. (Yonhap)
